Words by Morris Murray
The word power indicates “the ability to do or accomplish something.” It may refer to weightlifting, automobile engines, athletic feats, demolition tasks, steam plants, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc. As a general rule, people tend either to be impressed by or overwhelmed with various types or kinds of power.
Can the word power also be used in connection with how we think? Do our thinking patterns also bring about either positive or negative outcomes? Power thinking says, “Yes.”
Power thinking is the ability to thinkwhat God directs us to think – a positive outcome which is in accordance to His will.
Romans 12:2 frames it this way: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Power thinking is transformative thinking which enables us to both know and do God’s will in every domain of life. Is anything more important than this?
1 Jn. 2:17: “and the world is passing away and the lusts thereof, but the one who does the will of God abides forever.”
Do our thoughts play a role in our health status? Dr. Charles Mayo maintains that this is the case. He estimates that “spiritual and mental factors in disease vary from 65% to75%.” Other studies suggest that “50% to 80% of all diseases have their origin in dysfunctional and malfunctioning mental and spiritual states.”
Power thinking plays a crucial or critical role in how we view ourselves, others, God, and the various situations in life. Philippians 2:5: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” 1 Cor. 1:10: “be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.” Eph. 4:23: “and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” Philippians 4:8: “whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report: think on these things.”
Christians are not to deny that much evil and wickedness exists and is de-structive. But the primary gaze of Christian thinking patterns must be that of the more con-structive matters like those in this verse from Philippians. After all, as William Elliott notes: “when a person is wrong in the inside, nothing much is right on the outside.”
Therefore, our thinking patterns about God, ourselves, and others must avoid excessive negativity (buzzard-mindsets, mental blinders, binoculars which magnify the negative and minimize the positive) and seek to create and maintain a healthy balance between the strengths and weaknesses which are encountered in life.
If chronic regrets over the sins and failures of the past are not properly cushioned by God’s grace, love, and forgiveness, our energies for focusing or refocusing on more hopeful, constructive thinking patterns in the present may be paralyzed and shortcircuited. This may also likely ruin our future – whatever length it may be. WL
